A few thoughts from John Fleck, a writer of journalism and other things, living in New Mexico

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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: original jurisdiction

There’s a rich, historical elegance to the tradition of state-v-state lawsuits over interstate compacts. Because each of the US states is constitutionally sovereign, when they sue one another over water flowing down a river from one state to the next, the legal action begins and ends before the US Supreme Court – the court of “original jurisdiction”.

I am happy to report that I’ve got my own original jurisdiction case with the newly filed “Texas v New Mexico“:

Texas moved Tuesday to drag New Mexico before the U.S. Supreme Court, charging that New Mexico is mismanaging the Rio Grande in a way that deprives Texas farms and cities of water that rightly belongs to them.

The lawsuit alleges widespread groundwater pumping between Elephant Butte Reservoir and the New Mexico-Texas border that has effectively reduced flows in the river.